When the casting announcement comes out in the next few weeks we'll get to deal with all of the "Rog was right!" posts, even though it was obvious a casting announcement was imminent. Should be splendid.

Yeah, he could be a ******** artist and most possibly is. Just saying that there will probably be at least one other villain in addition to Crossbones and Winter Soldier, and my guess is Zemo.

Yeah, pretty sure somebody has to pull WS's strings, and Crossbones is, indeed, most likely still only muscle for the boss. I'd narrow the boss down to Zemo, Lukin, or Zola (Zola was rumored from the start, but I hope it's Zemo instead).

It was suggested on the commentary. It seems Zola could be the one that "creates" Winter Solider.

That would make sense since Zola went right to where Bucky was being experimented on to collect his notes and blueprints before fleeing the HYDRA base. After watching that scene I thought that Zola was the one conducting the experiments for Schmidt and maybe with an eye to creating his own robot body. He would be the logical choice to create Bucky's artificial arm. Zola also had a very good idea where to find Bucky after the war since he was on the train and knew where the soldier fell.

That would make sense since Zola went right to where Bucky was being experimented on to collect his notes and blueprints before fleeing the HYDRA base. After watching that scene I thought that Zola was the one conducting the experiments for Schmidt and maybe with an eye to creating his own robot body. He would be the logical choice to create Bucky's artificial arm. Zola also had a very good idea where to find Bucky after the war since he was on the train and knew where the soldier fell.

The problem, story-wise, is that Zola is still in the custody of proto-SHIELD (I forget what the agency was called back then) at the end of CATFA. He has to escape, defect, or get spy-swapped to the Soviets or someone else after WWII --- unless they're implying that Android Zola is somehow still on SHIELD's payroll in modern times. Either way, it makes it unlikely that Zola would've been the one to "create" Winter Soldier.

The problem, story-wise, is that Zola is still in the custody of proto-SHIELD (I forget what the agency was called back then) at the end of CATFA. He has to escape, defect, or get spy-swapped to the Soviets or someone else after WWII --- unless they're implying that Android Zola is somehow still on SHIELD's payroll in modern times. Either way, it makes it unlikely that Zola would've been the one to "create" Winter Soldier.

Yes, but. It has been almost 70 years since WWII ended. In that amount of time Zola could have gone from SSR custody to any one of a number of countries or US government agencies. With Zola's advanced scientific knowledge, he could easily have bargained for his freedom by cooperating with the US military, a la von Braun. The SSR had the Tesseract, after all, and Zola was the one man on Earth who had any idea how to use its energy. He would have been an extremely valuable asset and there is no reason why he wouldn't have been recruited by the MCU version of Operation Paperclip.

Had Zola made such a deal, securing his freedom in exchange for aiding the US, he could easily have continued working on the Winter Soldier project in secret. Perhaps Zola had his own allies (HYDRA remnants, Zemo) who retrieved Barnes from where he fell and froze him until the scientist could proceed with his experiments. After Zola retired and when his body was failing due to age, he would have had a lot of incentive to work on his android body prototype and Barnes' artificial arm. There is a lot of leeway to make the Zola/Winter Soldier story work, if that's where they're going.

Yes, but. It has been almost 70 years since WWII ended. In that amount of time Zola could have gone from SSR custody to any one of a number of countries or US government agencies. With Zola's advanced scientific knowledge, he could easily have bargained for his freedom by cooperating with the US military, a la von Braun. The SSR had the Tesseract, after all, and Zola was the one man on Earth who had any idea how to use its energy. He would have been an extremely valuable asset and there is no reason why he wouldn't have been recruited by the MCU version of Operation Paperclip.

Had Zola made such a deal, securing his freedom in exchange for aiding the US, he could easily have continued working on the Winter Soldier project in secret. Perhaps Zola had his own allies (HYDRA remnants, Zemo) who retrieved Barnes from where he fell and froze him until the scientist could proceed with his experiments. After Zola retired and when his body was failing due to age, he would have had a lot of incentive to work on his android body prototype and Barnes' artificial arm. There is a lot of leeway to make the Zola/Winter Soldier story work, if that's where they're going.

I like your thinking....I'm just saying that Zola couldn't have been the one to "rescue" Barnes from his fall. Somebody else did that, and maybe Zola started going all Winter Soldier on him some years later. Maybe, as you say, some element of HYDRA found him (I still think they're the most likely ones) and recognized him from Zola's earlier experiments (as shown in CATFA), and kept him in the hopes/knowledge that the professor would return to them one day.